Jeffrey Allan chosen to lead Nazareth’s Institute for Technology, AI, and Society
Nazareth's Institute for Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Society, or ITAS, has hired Jeffrey Allan as its new director. The AI technology expert is poised to usher Nazareth to be a leader at the forefront of ethics and artificial intelligence. He has two decades of experience from Fortune 500 companies to Silicon Valley startups and is also a psychologist who knows an ethical lens is crucially needed in the fast-paced world of business leaders, policy makers, and other professionals.
“We don’t have to look very far to see the ways that, left unchecked, AI can go wrong, but it’s also important to pay close attention to the ways that AI can be a massively positive force in society,” said Allan. “Nazareth’s ITAS is here to fill a very real need and is the first AI academic center of excellence in the world to take a sustainable and ethical approach to AI as a whole. I see limitless opportunities for Nazareth to pioneer thought leadership and ethical insight regarding this unique and critical technology space.”
While artificial Intelligence technology has been evolving steadily for several decades, recent advances such as ChatGPT and driverless cars have brought AI to a greatly increased level of awareness among the general public.
Allan most recently served as chief executive officer of Echo Ridge, a Dartmouth College-affiliated company with Silicon Valley roots that he helped found in 2018. Echo Ridge specializes in machine learning to predict legislative outcomes and the impact of new laws on business and society.
“As leader of a rapidly growing, venture capital-backed AI technology company that operated so closely to the world of politics, I am intimately familiar with the socioethical issues and failures at the forefront of the industry,” said Allan. “My time in Silicon Valley has provided unique insight into the relentless conflict between mandates to grow quickly, achieve profitability, and operate ethically.”
He simultaneously served as an adjunct professor of psychology at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, New Hampshire. Prior to Echo Ridge, Allan was a founding team member of Lottery.com in San Francisco, where he served as the vice president of business strategy. He also spent a combined 15 years in Asia across Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia working with several large tech companies, including SAP (a global leader in enterprise software) and IBM to drive regional business development efforts across the Asia Pacific.
Allan holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in forensic psychology with a specialization in social cognition, both from the University of North Dakota. He is currently a doctoral student in International Business at Southern New Hampshire University. He also served on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps.
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Julie Long | Senior News & PR Officer | jlong2@naz.edu | (585) 389-2456 | (585) 781-8186 (cell)
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